John`s Art: Gizmo

I recently had a discussion about 80s movies with Mats, whilst we were watching Predator, where he revealed he had never seen 'Gremlins'!! When i went back to my room, i cooked up this little drawing just to see if i had the ability to draw Gizmo in all his cuteness and i think i captured it pretty well and still kept much of my own style. Ive been planning to make a massive 80s piece for a while now. A kind of collage of 80s pop culture as an homage to such an awesome time period. I already have a couple of other 80s things drawn up for the project but i think it will be a long time until the whole thing is finished :s.

Watches: JC de Castelbajac LEGO Watch

Lee Seung Gi wears this watch all the time in the Korean drama 'My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (Nine Tailed Fox), which is an awesome drama by the way (^_^)b and one that ill be talking about again soon im sure, just to try and promote the show some more for other people. I highly reccomend it!


In my search through the internet to find this watch, i came across a neat video, made for one of JC de Castelbajac (JC DC)`s seasonal lines as well as soom cool photos of concept/lego themed clothing.....



After Looking a bit more into the actual watches, i came across the company ODM, who manufacture the watch and found that they make some pretty neat watches! They even made a couple of collaboration pieces with Marvel!
Its a shame though, i cant seem to find anywhere online where i can buy their watch in the lego version :(

Korean Movie Review #85: '71 Into The Fire' (2010)

'71 Into The Fire' (2010)
War
8/10

'71 Into The Fire' follows the true story of 71 student soldiers, left to defend an abandoned school (formerly used as army headquarters) from an approaching North Korean infantry.

First of all, the action was amazing. From the opening of the movie, it really grabs you and you cant help but admire that this movie wont generate a worldwide box office due to its pretty much domestic-only release. Yet despite this, a lot of effort went into creating the action scenes. The general premis of the movie, you cant really argue with.

Its a pretty simple story with no particularly surprising twists or thought provoking moments. But it doesnt really need them! All you need to enjoy this movie is jut get on the side of the student soldiers and try to sympathis with their plight, root for them along the way.

T.O.P. (IRIS), the star of the movie, was pretty solid in delivering all of his action scenes but i couldnt help but feel that his stone cold presence (isnt he always that way?) took something away from the movie. There could have been a lot more emotion in this movie, creating the kind of emotional intensity of 'Tae Guk Gi'.

Kwon Sang Woo (Stairway To Heaven, Once Upon A Time In High School) plays one of the other student soldiers. He is unruly, has a bad attitude and a general liability to the command. When i first heard he would be playing a student soldier, i didnt think it would work because he is clearly too old to play such a part and im pretty sure i read somewhere that they thought about re-casting him at some point during pre-production. In the end though, he did an awesome job and played his role perfectly!

Other notable stars included Cha Seung Won (Ghost House, Break Out, Secret), playing the North Korean commander and Kim Seung Woo (IRIS, Break Out) plays the South Korean commander who leaves the students to defend the school. Ive spoken very highly about Cha Seung Won before but unfortunately, this film doesnt really give him the ability to shine at all.

The movie could have benefited more from a more melodramatic TOP and accompanying OST to set emotions high but the movie earns a high grade still from the solid performances and excellent action scenes

1. A Moment To Remember 9.5/10
2. Tae Guk Gi - Brotherhood 9/10
3. The Good, The Bad & The Weird 9/10
4. Friend 8.5/10
5. Il Mare 8.5/10
6. Oldboy 8.5/10
7. A Bittersweet Life 8.5/10
8. Humming 8.5/10
9. Sad Movie 8.5/10
10. Sensitive Couple 8.5/10
11. 71 Into The Fire 8/10
    
12. A Man Who Was Superman 8/10
13. Memories Of Murder 8/10
14. Antique 8/10
15. The Chaser 8/10
16. Private Eye 8/10
17. My Boyfriend Is Type B 8/10
18. Castaway On The Moon 8/10
19. Daisy 7.5/10
20. Lovers Concerto 7.5/10
21. Almost Love 7.5/10
22. Rainbow Eyes 7.5/10
23. My Sassy Girl 7.5/10
24. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter....and Spring 7.5/10
    
25. Mother 7.5/10
    
26. Romantic Island 7.5/10
    
27. My Tutor Friend 7.5/10
28. Once Upon A Time In High School 7.5/10
29. Ride Away 7.5/10
30. 3 Iron 7.5/10
    
31. Summer Whispers 7.5/10
32. A Millionaire's First Love 7/10
33. Sympathy For Mr Vengeance 7/10
    
34. Thirst 7/10
35. Joint Security Area 7/10
36. All For Love 7/10
37. Breathless 7/10
38. Daddy Long Legs 7/10
39. Ghost House 7/10
40. Secret Reunion 7/10
    
41. Hansel & Gretel 7/10
    
42. He Was Cool 7/10
43. My Love 7/10
44. Lovers of 6 Years 7/10
    
45. Maundy Thursday 7/10
46. Once In A Summer 7/10
    
47. Someone Special 7/10
48. The Classic 7/10
49. Ditto 7/10
    
50. Hot For Teacher 7/10
51. A Dirty Carnival 6.5/10
    
52. Break Out 6.5/10
53. Guns & Talks 6.5/10
54. Holiday 6.5/10
55. A Love 6.5/10
56. Love Phobia 6.5/10
    
57. Ing 6.5/10
58. More Than Blue 6.5/10
59. Speedy Scandal 6.5/10
    
60. Two Faces Of My Girlfriend 6.5/10
61. Secret 6.5/10
    
62. Daytime Drinking 6.5/10
63. Babo 6.5/10
64. Bad Guy 6/10
65. Bestseller 6/10
    
66. Beautiful 6/10
    
67. Big Bang 6/10
    
68. Bungee Jumping Of Their Own 6/10
69. The Host 6/10
70. My Wife Is A Gangster 6/10
    
71. My Little Bride 6/10
    
72. Oh My God 6/10
73. My Scary Girl 6/10
    
74. 200 Pounds Beauty 5/10
75. A Tale Of Two Sisters 5/10
76. April Snow 5/10
77. A Man Who Came From Mars/Letter From Mars 5/10
78. See You After School 5/10
    
79. Death Bell 5/10
80. Whispering Corridors 5: A Blood Pledge 5/10
    
81. Venus & Mars 4.5/10
82. My Girl & I 4/10
83. A Million 4/10
    
84. Living Death 4/10
85. Gangster High 3/10

Internet Downtime and Design Updates

Downtime...
So i had some internet downtime recently (a week in total) and man, i finally understand just how much the internet is a part of my life. At first i thought, wow thats kinda sad. But possibly i just had some withdrawals because ive been living on my own. Hopefully things will become more social and i can stop having conversations with myself as my flatmates start to move in.

Designing...
So ive been busying myself with my t shirt design plan recently. Mostly ive just been studying existing designs and colour schemes to get a good understanding of what colours work together, on what t shirts and also looking at how t shirt graphics are typically put together. Its not as simple as just drawing an image and throwing it on a t shirt though. An image can look amazing but that doesnt necessarily mean it can work on a t shirt. Ive mentioned this before, but its a very important factor.

So i still need to spend some time looking and truly understanding colours as well as starting to look at what is available to me concerning the actual production of the t shirts. I want to make things as cheap as possible without sacrificing quality.

All this talk about preparation and understanding of course but actually i have pretty much finished up my first design. Im so impressed with my own work that this will be the flagship design for the company. Its what im riding a lot of hope on because i think people will really really like it and i adore it so much!! There wont be anything revealed yet though. In fact, im not unveiling my designs until i have them printed up and ready for selling. Feedback so far is really good though!! I`ve showed them to one or two friends and they were really positive about them and assured me they would buy the design once i have it ready. So i need to start churning out some more badass designs soon and try to get them out for you guys. Im wondering if i could use any of my old artworks for designs. Maybe for the moment, such designs are not t shirt worthy but with some work and plenty of additional artwork, they might serve to spare me some time :D

Sorry for this long post but if you read it, you`ll understand exactly where im at :D

John`s Art: Designing T shirt Worthy Material

Whilst my skills and works have been improving over the past year, i had still yet to make any thing that would be worthy of slapping on a t shirt. Just because a drawing looks good doesnt mean it will look good on a t shirt. I think there is a lot to consider when putting something on a t shirt. Especially if you dont have slogans or catchphrases to throw on there. Im not really interested in doing too much of that. What im interested in is creating t shirt worthy, unisex designs. I want people of both sexes to be able to wear my designs regardless. Thats gonna be part of my goals and actually, i just finished a design tonight which i really adore. I personally think its awesome and i hope other people will like it!
Im really grateful for all the support ive received from friends and peers on my work so far. I really appreciate that and i think that if i hadnt had it, i would have maybe just kept this as a hobby.

I have a lot of work to do......

Music: K-pop 'Shady Girl' by Sistar

I dont care, i ****in love this song HAHAHA!!!!!! The lyrics are really cute too!!

John`s Art: 'Gumiho'

I made this drawing of a fox ages ago, but the lines i had originally drawn were much more crude than this. So, i smoothed everything out and added extra tails to make it into a Gumiho. I was thinking about making a blue colour version of it and making a new banner for my blog with it. Ill toy with the idea for now :D

K Drama - "My Girlfriend is a Nine Tailed Fox (Gumiho)"

This show is awesome! One of the best dramas ive seen in ages. It seems like besides IRIS, nothing consistently good came out in years! Shin Min Ah is gorgeous and the whole show is really adorable, with a great OST accompanying it. One or two of the tracks, which id heard before starting the show and didnt like, have really grown on me. Im loving the side story of the character playing Lee Seung Gi`s Aunt and cant wait to see where that is going too :D

The song in this MV is sooo nice!

Watches: 'Jason' - New G-Shock style

This is the new G-Shock style they are calling 'Jason' or G-001, out now in a bunch of different colourways. what do you think? Personally, im not feeling it :s